Straight-Axle Madness

Straight-axle madness. Its spores were belched from supercharged Chryslers throughout the ’60s, lay dormant for three decades, then came back to hit the gearhead world like a Napalm strike that won’t stop burning. These days, you can rip that pesky independent front suspension out of the car of your choice and replace it with stick-axle parts from the likes of Jim Meyer Racing or Speedway Motors to create your own fire-breathing reenactment of the heyday—simple as that. During the first round of Gasser, Modified Production, Altered, and A/FX history, the conversions took a little more junkyarding, mixing and matching, and fabricating. In truth, the solutions found under even the most famous of historic race cars were not always so elegant, or even safe. Celebrating that reality, we decided to rip through the HOT ROD archives to give you a look at the dirty side of some original Gassers, exploring the technical nitty-gritty you rarely see in the funny papers.

> In March 1963, HOT ROD's Eric Rickman visited the LA Gap Setters club members as they assembled their Willys Gasser. While the NHRA Gas class had been around since the '50s, the famed Gasser wars kicked off at this time, and the famous cars in the camshaft ads kicked off a legion of followers. SoCal and Ohio were the Gasser capitals of the world, with many cars being assembled by clubs and individuals at the backyard level. Some ran NHRA or AHRA, while others were simply match-race cars.

1/19

> We'll kick this off with details on one of the most famous Willys ever--Big John Mazmanian's '41 Gasser, seen here at Riverside Raceway in June 1964. By this time, the car had ditched its small-block Chevy for a Bones Balogh-built, 467ci, blown Chrysler that ran A/Gas Supercharged in the high 9s and mid-140s. The car was on the Sept. '64 cover of HOT ROD after winning its class at the HOT ROD Magazine Championship Drags. The Willys also took the honors for Best Appearing Race Car.

2/19

> Mazmanian's suspension was set up at B&M, which also supplied the car's Hydramatic four-speed automatic transmission. Here's the quirk you may not expect: quarter-elliptic leaf springs (arrow). That arrangement uses half of a normal leaf spring, clamped to the chassis at one end, and, in this case, shackled to the axlehousing at the other end. Those brakes are Airheart.

3/19

> The quarter-elliptic springs carry the weight of the car, but they do not positively locate the axlehousing. Instead, ladder bars (arrow A) hold the axle in position fore and aft, and a Watts link (arrow B) limits the side-to-side motion. Here you can also see the fabricated shock crossmember.

4/19

> In the trunk you can see the pivot and the top arm of the Watts link arrangement. The use of huge batteries was pretty normal, as the Gas classes were rated based on weight; racers would lighten the cars as much as possible, then add weight to the rear part of the car to help with traction.

5/19

> In this view looking forward, you can see the ladder-bar mounts that extend all the way forward to the plane of the trans bellhousing mounting surface. The front suspension used a tubular axle located by parallel leaf springs. With the leaves atop the axle, blocks (arrow) were used to gain a little extra height.

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> The Eastern portion of the Gasser clan was led by "Ohio George" Montgomery with this Willys that had relentless success, gaining national championships six times between 1959 and 1966 and powered first by a Cad, then a Chevy, then a SOHC Ford. Here, it's on the way to a Little Eliminator title at the '60 NHRA Nationals.

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> In 1960, George shook up the tech inspectors with the then-unusual use of Delco coilover shocks (arrow A) as his sole method of suspending the car; they were used at both ends. A Panhard rod (arrow B) held the axle in side-to-side position, while ladder bars (arrow C) in perilous, single-shear mounts controlled fore-aft motion. Note the horn, then a requirement in the Gas class to maintain the illusion of street legality.

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> Another legendary Willys Model 77 was run during the latter half of the '60s by K.S. Pittman, who had driven a number of West Coast cars--including the Stone-Woods Willys--before defecting to the S&S Speed Shop team out of Virginia. This is the all-fiberglass, Dave Zeuschel Hemi-powered Pittman-Stolze car of 1967, by which time the Gassers were no longer required to use OE-based frames. This one rode on a Chuck Finders chassis fabbed from rectangular tubing. The photo was shot at the '67 NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, where the car had broken and was out of competition.

9/19

> Here's Ted and Steve Samsel's '32 Vickie called Teddie Bear, back in 1963. It's a little unusual to see a '32 as a Gasser, though full-fendered cars sometimes were (most notably, Harry Luzader's green coupe). The car gets its height from a heavily arched, Model T-type transverse leaf spring; it's so high that the wishbone is not even split, despite the low oil pan on the injected small-block. Those appear to be the old Cure-Ride shocks.

13/19

> This is a '41 Willys pickup from a photo at the '64 Grand National Roadster Show. It has the quarter-elliptic setup augmented by coil springs (arrow A), but of greatest interest to us are the filled and chromed I-beam axles repurposed as traction bars (arrow B).

14/19

> Nearly every '55 to '57 Chevy axle car these days uses parallel leaf springs, but this transverse-spring setup was not uncommon on '60s race cars. The straight, tubular axle uses Willys spindles and Airheart brakes, and the rectangular-tube frame stub carries fabricated crossmembers for the spring and Moon tank mounts as well as for the shocks. In 1967, HRM described the 90/10 drag shocks as being Up-Loks.

15/19

> The Tabasco '55 Chevy was the star of the April '67 cover of HOT ROD. It was the product of Blair's Speed Shop (Pasadena, California), which came close to offering the suspension systems as a kit for full-bodied Gassers of the time. HRM reported that the design on this car was the handiwork of Mike Hoag at Blair's.

16/19

> Tabasco's rear-suspension arrangement is a little freakish, with normal leaf springs augmented by a four-link with the top arms extending forward and the lower arms stretching to the rear of the
car. We presume the idea was to allow jounce and rebound while controlling pinion angle under acceleration. The '55 also had a quick-change rearend.

17/19

> Looking forward from the rear, you can see the four-link setup (arrow A) to control the front axle. The bellhousing is also supported by an aluminum midplate (arrow B). Also note the triangulation bars (arrow C) that add support from the bellhousing to the trans crossmember.

18/19

> Finally, here's the Rusea & Morris '41 Willys powered by an injected 427ci Ford FE running A/Gas at the '63 Nationals. The louvered inner fenders are interesting, as are the coilover shocks. The balance of the suspension seems to have been robbed from an early pickup truck, drum brakes and all. Note the angle of the shackles. In a perfect world, the shackles would be angled opposite of this, with the bottom half forward, for optimum ride quality and for better frontend droop under acceleration. It's also possible to run the spring eyes up front and the shackles at the rear of the springs.